Larry D. Lauer

Last week I asked the question: How important is Truth? A long-established historian and recognized scholar sent me a very perceptive response. He preferred that I publish it without attribution, so here is a slightly trimmed version of what he said:

“Time, not truth, is (our) unit of value. The more information we are offered, the less we have. Information is conveyed through time, and (today) time is purchased with money. Hence truth must be ‘trimmed’ to fit the narrow confines of the time offered by the (news or other) medium.”

He went on to point out, “This is the reverse of the order of what prevailed for the last two centuries. Our ancestors had scads of time… stood in the open for hours listening to addresses and debates. They read tiny printed newspapers, transcripts, documents and public records. There never was a need for a commercial break…”

“My fear,” he concluded, “is that we do not live in the Information Age, rather (we live) in the Entertainment Age.”

I share this sage’s perceptive thoughts as our “entertainment-driven” political debates rage on day after day. Admittedly, my constant call for more media literacy education might not change this game. But at least it might produce some measure of public awareness of what is really going on.